Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Horseshoe Lake and Cucumber Salad!

Since its an overcast day at the lake, I think its a good time for me to post the first part of our trip!

I am spending the week at Horseshoe Lake in Merrifield, MN with a group of friends and it has turned out to be a much needed vacation!

After driving all night we arrived in Merrifield around 7:30am. After a quick 2 hr nap we opened a few beers and hopped in the water!

JEEEENNNGAAA

On Sunday we went to Nisswa, a cute lake town about 20 miles from Horseshoe Lake, we had delicious ice cream at the Chocolate Ox and dinner at Rafferty's Pizza

They had a wide variety of pizzas including mashed potato pizza, Lucky Chicken which had a lingonberry sauce that was to die for! I had Alexandra's Barbeque Chicken and it was tasty! I loved the thin crust and who could pass up $1 beers!

After dinner a civic organization in Nisswa gave out American flags shortly before the parade

MEAT RAFFLE?! Sign me up! I remember Andrew Zimmer said this was popular in small Minnesota towns, too bad it was last Friday! I would have wanted to be part of that. In case you are not familiar with the meat raffle, you buy raffle tickets and if your ticket is drawn, you win meat!

We watched the sunset in the paddle boat!

The 4th was spent at the beach and grilling, we found out noodles make great flag poles and the guys celebrated their right to bear arms with a super soaker battle on the dock. Oh, and I wish I had my camera but there was a boat parade in the morning! All the boats in Horseshoe Lake were decorated and each boat had a theme. There were patriotic boats, and Star Wars boats.

What would a food blog be without recipes?? One great thing about vacationing with other foodies: great meals! Sarah's parents stocked the kitchen for us so it was easy to whip up lunch! Today for lunch I made my honey poppyseed vinaigrette for salads and also made a cucumber tomato salad, recipe compliments of Jay :)